The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years (Web Novel KR)
chapter-299

“How is it?”

“Interesting.”

When he heard her response, Peran smiled slightly as if he was expecting.

“I thought you’d say that.”

“Right. As you said, he definitely is an interesting man.”

“…I thought he’d be a Wizard, but he wields a sword.”

“You said he killed Budilem in one hit right? He might have been overwhelmed if it was a real fight.”

Peran nodded.

“How is it? I don’t know enough about the Swordsman field to confirm. But since he killed Budilem, he should have been at least First Class.”

“In terms of pure ability, he’s Third Class.”

Peran couldn’t help but be surprised when he heard this.

“Really?”

“No. Even Third Class feels a bit generous. You saw his body too, didn’t you? The most eye-catching thing is the limp in his right foot, but the situation of his left arm isn’t good either.”

Snow looked down at her own left hand as she clenched and unclenched it.

“The grip strength of his left hand is probably not even half of his right. His reaction rate should also be very slow. For example, even if he thinks about moving his left arm now, there will probably be a few seconds of delay before it actually moves. That’s fatal for a swordsman.”

“Then do you think he used a different kind of power to kill Budilem?”

“That may or may not be the case.”

“…”

“How about you? What is your judgment towards this man?”

“I can’t see through him.”

If it was said that Snow paid attention to the exterior, what Peran focused on was the interior.

“I don’t know what kind of training he was given. However, his mental strength far surpasses most Wizards. He has reached the state of ‘mind as calm as a still lake’.”

Peran seemed to want to say something more, but he closed his mouth. Saying more than that would just be his own suspicions and speculations, and it wasn’t something he should say lightly in front of his superior.

“What else?”

“I’m sure he’s hiding something…. But, whatever it is doesn’t seem to be malicious. That much I can tell.”

“Hmm.”

Snow hummed softly beneath her breath and folded her arms. As she hummed, she swung her head back and forth as if she was listening to a song. While this might seem like a playful attitude, Peran knew that she was seriously thinking at the moment.

“I think we should move on to talking about more practical things.”

Snow’s humming died down.

“What is his usage value?”

“…about five points.”

“Out of 10?”

“Out of 100.”

Snow’s expression changed.

“That score is very low for someone you rated so highly.”

“Isn’t the usage value you mentioned in regard to the meeting in two years? At his current level, he wouldn’t be of much help.”

While it was amazing that Lukas had killed Budilem, Peran had at least a dozen more talented people capable of the same feat. It was also clear that they all had something that made them better than Lukas.

Growth potential.

Even at that moment, they were consistently growing stronger.

Right. That was an important factor.

“It’s impossible for him to get any stronger at this point.”

“I agree, but that’s not completely correct.”

“Huh?”

“It’s not impossible. It’s just very close to impossible.”

“…”

“In any case, now is the time to focus on nurturing elites. At the meeting in two years, either this Queen or Ivan will have to die.”

“…are you okay?”

“Are you worried about me? Ahahaha. I’m flattered.”

He wasn’t worried about that.

Not knowing what to say, Peran remained silent.

“In any case, it looks like we’ve managed to reach a rough conclusion. I’ll go tell him.”

“I’ll go with you.”

Snow didn’t stop Peran from following her, and instead went upstairs to Lukas’ room and directly opened the door.

Click.

“…mm?”

“Hm…”

Snow and Peran simultaneously let out sounds of surprise.

This was because they were met with a strange sight when they opened the door to the room.

Lukas was standing alone in the room in a strange position with his sword in his hand. In addition, he was sweating profusely and breathing heavily.

Snow tilted her head to the side.

“What were you doing?”

“…that.”

They had come up so fast that he didn’t even have time to put the sword away.

Naturally, he couldn’t say that, so Lukas just came up with a rough excuse.

“I was doing a bit of training…”

“Training? Why would you do it here?”

“…”

When she asked this in a confused voice, he didn’t know what else to say.

Suddenly, as if he realised something, Peran spoke to Snow.

“Lady Swordna, I don’t think it would be polite to delve any deeper into this matter.”

“What do you mean?”

“That…”

Peran lowered his head and whispered something into Snow’s ear.

“…ahhh~”

Snow let out a sound as if she finally understood before nodding in a shaky manner.

“If that’s the case, well. Then I guess it can’t be helped.”

“…”

“Still it would be better to find a more suitable time and place.”

Lukas didn’t know what they were talking about, but he felt that the longer this topic continued, the worse it would become.

Pushing his suspicions aside, he opened his mouth.

“Have you made a decision on how you will deal with me?”

“Ah. That’s right.”

Snow nodded and straightened up slightly.

“From tomorrow, you will be accompanying us.”

“…!”

Peran looked at Snow with a hint of surprise on his face.

On the other hand, Snow’s voice remained calm as she continued.

“We’ll be in your care for a while, Lukas.”

* * *

It was a cloudy night.

Lukas woke up in the dim moonlight around midnight. He’d woken up much earlier than usual, and it wasn’t because of the moonlight shining on his face.

Rustle-

He could hear the sounds of pages being flipped.

Lukas had been given a single room, so he should have been the only one in the room.

But now, he could clearly sense someone else’s presence in the room. The sound came from the desk.

He sat up in bed.

The first thing he saw when he looked over was something white. At first, he thought it was a white blanket. It reminded him of a high quality white blanket made from the fur of the snow ferrets living in the snowfields, or the hair of silver maned foxes.

But it wasn’t.

He was looking at someone’s back, which meant the white curtain was their hair.

White hair seemed to glow mysteriously in the moonlit room.

Tak-

Snow closed the book and turned around.

She wasn’t wearing the mask. Of course, Lukas had already realised this when he saw her hair.

“Aren’t you surprised?”

“Do you want me to treat you like a ghost?”

“That would be interesting.”

“…I am surprised. I wouldn’t have expected you to break into my room without permission.”

“Ahaha…”

Snow let out a laugh. The sound was much quieter than usual, almost a whisper.

“What were you doing?”

“Waiting for you to wake up.”

“You could’ve woken me.”

“It’s not good to do that to someone who’s sleeping peacefully.”

Snow’s consideration was a bit off putting. Was it because she was an elf? No. Maybe it was because of her unique personality.

“Undead have appeared in the forests in the eastern part of Kastkau.”

“…”

“After dealing with a few more things here, we’ll go there.”

It was strange.

While the appearance of undead was something that could happen naturally, the undead that appeared at that time would usually be few in number and their power would be negligible.

There was no reason for Peran and Snow to be so wary if it was just the appearance of undead.

“It didn’t happen naturally.”

“It seems you know about undead. You have a lot of general knowledge.”

Lukas ignored Snow’s words and asked.

“Who is behind it?”

“Would you even understand if I told you? You don’t even remember anything.”

“…”

She wasn’t wrong.

Lukas felt a bit of regret and couldn’t help but wonder if he had messed up by choosing to go with memory loss.

“We plan to leave around tomorrow afternoon. We’ll be using Peran’s magic, so there won’t be a need to prepare much. Oh, and…”

Snow placed her hand on the books Lukas had bought.

“These will be of no use to you.”

As she said that, frost spread from her fingers, freezing all of the books in an instant.

Crack!

With a bit more pressure, the block of ice was crushed beneath her palm.

“One month.”

“…”

“This Queen is a busy person. I only plan to teach you for one month.”

Snow valued him more than he expected.

As he thought this, Lukas asked a question.

“What if, after a month, my growth doesn’t meet your expectations?”

Just before she left the room, she turned around and gave him an answer with a smile.

“Then there would be no reason to meet again in the future.”